Holocaust Glossary of Terms

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

aktion

A Nazi operation involving seeking out, assembling, shooting, deporting to labor or death camps - taking place in Jewish villages or ghettos.

 

Allies

The twenty-six nations, including the U.S., U.S.S.R. and Great Britain, that fought the Axis powers in World War II.

 

Anielewicz, Mordechai

Jewish resistance leader in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, killed on May 8, 1943.

 

Anschluss

German for "political union," used by Germans to describe the annexation of Austria by Germany on March 13, 1938.

 

Aryan

A term used by Hitler to describe Caucasians of Nordic descent, usually of Northern European racial background, with the aim of preserving the purity of European blood.

 

Auschwitz

The largest Nazi concentration camp, located 37 miles west of Cracow.  Established in 1940, it became an extermination camp when it began receiving deportees in March/April 1942.  Eventually it consisted of a number of sections.  Auschwitz II-Birkenau was designated as the main extermination camp.

 

Axis

A group of countries originally including Nazi Germany, Italy and Japan, when they signed a pact in Berlin on September 27, 1940.  Eventually Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary and Slovakia joined as well.

 

B

Beer Hall Putsch

The failed attempt by Hitler and his associates to overthrow the German Weimar government on November 9, 1923.  Hitler was put into jail and released after eight months.

 

Belzec

One of the six Polish death camps.  Originally used as a Jewish forced-labor camp in 1940, it became an extermination camp after the Wannsee Conference early in 1942.   When it ceased operations in January 1943, over 600,000 Jews had been murdered there.

 

Bergen-Belsen

Originally a prisoner-exchange camp, it became a concentration and extermination camp in March 1944.  Anne Frank died there in March 1945.

 

Bermuda Conference on Refugees

Anglo-American conference which took place in 1943, in which the Nazis took note of the Allied ambivalence to the plight of persecuted minorities.

 

Birkenau

Auschwitz II, set up in Spring 1942, with four gas chambers to exterminate Jews.

 

Buchenwald

Opened in March 1938 as a Jewish forced-labor camp, near Weimer in Germany.

C

Chamberlain, Neville (1869-1940)

British Prime Minister from 1937-1940, misunderstanding Hitler, supported appeasement policies in the Munich Agreement of 1938, believing it would bring "peace in our time."

 

Chancellor

Chief Minister of Germany.

 

Chelmno

Established as an extermination camp late in 1941 near Lodz, Western Poland.  It became the first camp to execute using gas.  At the end of the war, 320,000 people had been killed there.

 

concentration camp

Camps established in the beginning of the Nazi regime to for imprisonment and forced-labor of "enemies" of the Reich, political and "anti-social," as well as Jews.  Disease, maltreatment and starvation led to many deaths, as did direct executions.

 

crematorium

The ovens and furnaces where dead bodies of prisoners were consumed.

D

Dachau

The first concentration and death camp set up in Southern Germany near Munich in mid-1938.

 

death camp

A location designated for extermination of people, or where severe and forced working conditions led to many deaths.

 

death march

Transfer of concentration camp inmates, in which they were forced to march to new locations, in order to hide the presence of the death camps from the invading Allied armies.  At least one third of the prisoners died or were killed along the way.

 

Der Sturmer

Meaning "The Attacker" - an anti-Semitic propaganda weekly founded and edited by Julius Streicher, published in Nuremberg between 1923 and 1945.

 

displaced person

Holocaust survivor remaining the war ended on May 8, 1945, who subsequently had no home.

 

D.P. camp

Special camps set up to treat and revive Holocaust survivors.

E

Eichmann, Adolf (1906-1962)

SS Lieutenant-Colonel and head of the Jewish Section of the Gestapo.  Instrumental in organizing the "Final Solution," planning the extermination  of 11,000,000 in Europe.  The Israeli Secret Service finally discovered his presence in Argentina, and he was smuggled to Israel, tried, convicted and executed on May 31, 1962.

 

Einsatzgruppen

Mobile killing squads of the SS that followed the German armies east into the Soviet Union.  Supported by units of German police and local volunteers, they executed over a million Jews through shooting and mass grave burials, from which the bodies were eventually exhumed and burned.

 

eugenics

A scientific program focusing on human breeding, which the Nazis used to promote racial purity and Aryan "ubermenschen," "superhumans."

 

Evian Conference

A conference arranged by President F.D. Roosevelt in July 1938, which met in France to discuss the refugee problem.  Since most Western countries were disinterested to accept the refugees, the conference was unsuccessful.

 

extermination camp

A location to which Jews and other POW's were deported, in order to be executed by efficient mass assembly-line killing methods.  The main camps, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor and Treblinka, were located in occupied Poland.

F

Final Solution

The name for the plan to eliminate 11,000,000 Jews in Europe to solve the "Jewish Question."  Beginning in December 1941, Jews were rounded up in occupied German territories and deceptively sent to be "resettled" in the East; ultimately, most of the deportees were shot or gassed.

 

Frank, Anne

A Jewish teenager who wrote a widely read diary while in hiding in Amsterdam.   Eventually died of typhus in Bergen Belsen in March 1945.

 

Frank, Hans

Governor-General of occupied Poland from 1939 to 1945, under whose auspices 85% of Polish Jewry were deported to extermination camps.  Also represented Hitler as his personal lawyer.  He was tried and executed in Numemberg in 1946.

 

Fuehrer

German for "leader."  Title which Hitler chose for himself.

G

gas chamber

A sealed room in which numerous victims could be killed all at once by inhaling poison gas.  Although Auschwitz used Zyklon B gas, most camps used carbon monoxide.

 

genocide

A term coined by historian Raphael Lemkin during World War II to describe the systematic and planned destruction of an entire religious, racial, national or ethnic group.

 

Gestapo

Secret State Police of the Third Reich who used brutal physical and psychological torture to create immense fear in the population and to seek out enemies of the State.

 

ghetto

Please describe me!!!

 

Goering, Herman

Appointed by Hitler as second in command and eventual successor.  He was in charge of Germany's re-armament program and in particular the establishment of the German air force.  He initiated the Final Solution and gave the order to Heydrich to carry it out.

 

Grynszpan, Herschel

A Polish Jewish youth who emigrated to Paris.  His concern for his parents' fate led to his shooting of the third secretary Ernst vom Rath of the German Embassy in Paris.   This provided an excuse for the staging of the Kristallnacht pogrom.

H

Hess, Rudolf Walter Richard

(See also Hoess, Rudolf Franz Ferdinand.) A long-time, close associate of Hitler, he flew from Augsburg and landed in Scotland on May 10, 1941, where he was arrested. He was tried at Nuremberg and sentenced to life imprisonment, but committed suicide in 1987.

 

Heydrich, Reinhard

Head of SS Nazi intelligence, he became head of the Gestapo.  Organized the Einsatzgruppen, which systematically murdered over a million Jews in occupied Russia during 1941-42.  Presided over the Wannsee Conference to implement and coordinate the Final Solution.  On May 29, 1942 he was assassinated by Czech partisans who parachuted from England.

 

Himmler, Heinrich

"Reichsfuhrer" (commander-in-chief) of the SS, who was responsible for carrying out Hitler's orders to exterminate the Jews.

 

Hitler, Adolph

Organizer of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP).  After World War I, he was not successful in his November 1923 attempt to forcibly bring Germany under Nationalist control, in the "Beer Hall Putsch."  Arrested and jailed for a five-year term, he wrote "Mein Kampf," describing his plan to create a greater Germany.  Released after eight months, he reentered politics and, by intimidating his enemies, eventually was allotted the chancellorship.  He set up a dictatorship, brutally eliminating all his rivals, enemies and opposition.  In September 1939, after annexing Austria, the Sudentenland and finally Czechoslovakia, he invaded Poland.   By the time the Allies realized he wasn't to be trusted, Hitler had overtaken much of Europe.  Once the U.S. joined the war in December 1941, the Germans began suffering defeats.  Although the war was obviously lost, he encouraged Germans to fight to their deaths - but he committed suicide on April 20, 1945 rather than be captured alive.

 

Hoess, Rudolf Franz Ferdinand

(See also Hess, Rudolf Walter Richard.) Commandant at Auschwitz, responsible for gassing more than 2 million Jews. He was tried at Nuremberg, sentenced to death in Warsaw and executed by hanging at Auschwitz.

Holocaust

Literally, "a completely burned sacrifice."  It was the term used to describe the destruction of six million Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators in Europe and North Africa between the years 1933-1945.

I

Israel

The Middle-Eastern Jewish homeland established in 1948 after a UN partition plan. Many survivors found their home there after being held in European D.P. camps after the Holocaust.

 

Italy

A southern European country. A member of the Triple Alliance during World War I. Ruled by Mussolini, Italy entered World War II in 1940 as an ally of Germany. In 1943, Italy surrendered to the Allies.

J

Judenjagd

A search for Jews that hid or fled, which usually took place after a pogrom or massacre.

 

Judenrat

A committee of Jewish representatives in Jewish locations set up by the Nazis, to assist them in the administration of their policies.

 

Judenrein

A term used to describe an area where all the Jews have been "cleansed" or "purified" of Jews by deportation and/or murder.

K

kapo

Prisoners forced under threat of death to supervise and intimidate, often violently, their fellow prisoners into complying with the supervisor's demands.

 

Kristallnacht

German for "Night of Broken Glass."  A mass pogrom of Nazi violence against Jews, their stores and syangogues on November 9-10, 1938.  Aside from looting and destruction of property, about 35,000 Jewish men were sent to labor camps.  35 people were killed.

L

labor camp

Camp where Jews and other prisoners were subjected to forced labor either for military or government purposes.

 

League of Nations

An international organization initiated by President Woodrow Wilson as part of the Treaty of Versailles, with the vision to "make the world safe for democracy."   Eventually, the U.S. failed to take part and the organization became ineffective.

 

Lebensraum

One of Hitler's principles in which he stated that Germany's Third Reich and its Aryan citizens needed "living space," which could be obtained by invading neighboring states.

 

Lodz

A city in Western Poland which contained the first ghetto in April 1940, originally holding about 140,000 people in 1.6 square miles, and then an additional 20,000 German and Austrian Jews which were sent there in October 1941.  Most were deported and exterminated at Chelmno, until the ghetto was liquidated in September 1944, and the remaining 60,000 were sent to Auschwitz.

M

Majdanek

Originally a labor and POW camp for Russians and Poles, it became a death camp for approximately 250,000 people until the Red Army liberated it in July 1944.

 

Master Race

The ideal to create a "Herrenvolk" - a unified superior race of strictly Aryan descent - by eliminating "Untermenschen" - subhumans, such as Jews, Gypsies, enemies of the state, and handicapped, or unproductive people.

 

Mauthausen

A labor camp for men in Northern Austria established in August, 1938, where almost 100,000 Jews and prisoners of other nationalities were forced to work under the most brutal conditions and tortured to death, until the U.S. Army liberated it in May, 1945.

 

Mein Kampf

German for "My Struggle," it was Hitler's autobiography which he wrote while in prison after the November 1923 failed "Beer Hall Putsch."  In it, Hitler explains his beliefs and plans for the future of the German nation.  He describes the "Aryan" race, by eliminating all inferior and undesirable peoples, of which in particular he focuse on the "source of all evil" - the Jews.

 

Mengele, Josef (1911-1978?)

SS officer at Auschwitz in charge of "selections" of the new deportees.   His pointing to the right or the left would determine either immediate gassing and death or being sent to forced labor.  Known as the "Angel of Death," he was notorious for his "medical" experiments, especially on twins and Gypsies.   Escaped after the war from a British Internment Hospital, and was hunted until his body was "supposedly" found in Brazil in 1986.

N

Nazi

Member of "NSDAP" - fascist Nationalist Socialist German Workers' Party, which was founded after World War I and eventually taken over by Hitler in 1933.

 

Night of Long Knives

A night of internal conflict between the SA "Brownshirts" and the SS "Blackshirts," in which the SS eventually became Hitler's elite unit.

 

Nuremberg Laws

Two anti-Semitic statutes enacted at the Nazi party national convention at Nuremberg in 1935, that basically deprived Jews of German citizenship, removed Jews from all spheres of German political, social and economic life, and established definitions of Jewishness, creating severe discrimination against people who even had a Jewish grandparent.

 

Nuremberg Trials

War Crimes Trials that took place in Nuremberg, Germany in 1946, where some Nazis were tried and sentenced for POW violations, and other crimes against humanity by either imprisonment or death.

O

occupation

A military takeover of a country with the subsequent controlling of its political, economical, and even legal systems by a foreign power.

 

orchestra

Jewish prisoners forced to play music while other Jews were being led to the gas chambers.

 

Oswiecim

A city in southern Poland near Cracow. This site became the largest Nazi concentration camp known as Auschwitz.

 

P

partisan

Guerilla warfare behind enemy lines, carried out by irregular troops or resistance fighters, against invading troops.

 

pogrom

Spontaneous or pre-arranged and organized attacks by non-Jewish citizens or military against Jews.  Although occurring throughout the diaspora, they weren't as systematic as those occurring during the Holocaust such as Kristallnacht.

 

propaganda

Continuous forceful advertisement to press - a particular point of view through various means of communication.  The Nazis were experts in accomplishing the acceptance of even blatant falsehoods amongst their admirers as well as their opponents.

 

Q

quicklime

An alkali chemical also known as calcium oxide or caustic lime. A colorless or white powder which burns human skin on contact. Several inches of this powder were placed in the bottom of cattle cars prior to loading in Jews and other victims of Nazi roundups.

R

Rath, Ernst vom (1909-1938)

Third Secretary at the German Embassy in Paris, who was assassinated by Herschel Grynszpan on November 7, 1938.  His murder was the excuse for Kristallnacht.

 

Ravensbruck

A concentration-labor camp just for female prisoners in Germany.

 

Red Army

The Soviet Army which, after Germany's defeat in "Leningrad," eventually reconquered all its lands lost to the Germans and continued on to Berlin.

 

refugee

One who, as a result of a war or another disaster, is forced to leave his place of residence and becomes homeless.

 

Reich

Monarchy or kingdom; Hitler planned that Germany and its Aryan citizens would rule the world in its Third Reich.

 

Reichstag

German parliament which, under Hitler, enacted various anti-Semitic political and economic laws.

 

Rhineland

A buffer area between Germany and Western Europe designated after World War I where no troop was permitted.

 

Roosevelt, Franklin Delano

U.S. president elected for four terms from 1933 until his death in 1945, initiator of the "New Deal" economic and political program to recover from the Depression.   Responsible for U.S. war actionsas well as inaction to save hundreds of thousands of murdered Jews during World War II.

S

SA

The Nazi party's original stormtroopers, called "Brownshirts."  Organized in 1921, they were led by Ernest Rom, until the SS took over.

 

Saar

A district rich in resources in Western Germany that became re-incorporated as an integral part of Hitler's Germany on March 1, 1935 by a popular vote under the auspices of the League of Nations.

 

selection

A term describing the process of separating out those Jewish victims fit for hard labor from the remainder, who would then be sent to their deaths.  This usually took place either at a ghetto roundup or at the entrance of the death camp.

 

shtetl

A Yiddish word describing a small town or rural village that was predominantly Jewish.

 

Sobibor

An extermination camp in Eastern Poland not far from Lublin, where approximately 250,000 Jews were killed from its opening in May 1942, until it was closed on October 14, 1943, one day after the prisoners revolted and blew up the camp.  Most of the escapees were subsequently captured and killed.

 

Social Darwinism

The Nazi adaptation of Charles Darwin's "survival of the fittest" concept of evolution - in which the belief that "superior humans" will eventually overcome "subhuman" species.

 

Sonderkommando

"Special command" or "Corpse Commando" - the term given to prisoners who were forced to work in the gas chambers, undressing rooms and crematoria.

 

SS

Abbreviation for "Schutzstaffel" - Safety Squadron, also called "Blackshirts."  Under the leadership of Himmler, the SS evolved from what was originally intended as Hitler's personal bodyguard units into the infamous terror-striking force that essentially was instrumental in destroying European Jewry.

 

Stalin, Josef

Leader of the U.S.S.R. from 1924 until the 1950's who, by signing a peace treaty with the Nazis, permitted the German invasion of Poland in September 1939.  After the Nazis attacked the U.S.S.R. in June 1941, Stalin joined the Allies, and assisted in Hitler's defeat.

 

St. Louis

A refugee steamship that departed from Hamberg for Cuba in the spring of 1939.   Only 22 of the 1,128 were allowed to disembark.  Although eventually the remainder were taken by England, Holland, France and Belgium, their initial rejection by every country, including the U.S., gave support to Hitler's theory that the nations of the world were unconcerned with the plight of Jewish refugees.

 

Struma

A boat that left Rumania in late 1941, headed towards Palestine, it was refused entry by the British.  Eventually tugged into the Black Sea, it sunk the following February with only one survivor remaining from all the 769 Jewish refugees on board.

 

Sudentenland

An area populated mostly by German-speakers that became part of Czechoslovakia after World War I.  Hitler annexed it on October 10, 1938, after British, French and Italian leaders bowed to Hitler's demands backed by military threats.

 

swastika

A Nazi symbol, based on an ancient good luck symbol from India, which looked like a cross with equal-sized right arms.

T

Theresienstadt

Originally an Austrian garrison.  In early 1942 it became a Jewish town governed by the SS, although used as a model for the Red Cross.  Eventually, 88,000 of the invalids, prominent Jews and other special cases who were sent there, were deported to death or labor camps in the East.  When the Red Army liberated it on May 8, 1945, on 17,000 original Jewish prisoners remained, plus another 14,000 evacuated from other camps threatened by the Allies.

 

Third Reich

The "Third Empire" of Germany, declared by Hitler, which came after the "Holy Roman Empire" and Chancellor Otto Von Bismark's empire.

 

Treaty of Versailles

The peace treaty that ended World War I, placing all the blame on Germany.   Burdened with heavy reparations, loss of land and serious financial difficulties in general, the Nazi party found an easy scapegoat for their difficulties, in the Jews.

 

Treblinka

An extermination camp in Northeast Poland, situated between Warsaw and Bialystok, which was established in May 1942.  It was blown up by the Nazis in the fall of 1943 to conceal their crimes in the face of invading armies, but not until 870,000 Jews were killed.

 

typhus

An infectious disease carried by lice or fleas that resulted in many deaths in the labor camps.

U

Umschlagplatz

The Warsaw ghetto square where Jews were rounded up and organized for deportation to Treblinka.

V

Volkswagen

Hitler's attempt to make a car available which German families could afford.

W

Wallenberg, Raoul

A Swedish diplomat who saved at least 30,000 Jewish lives by distributing Swedish papers, passports and visas.  After the liberation of Hungary, he was taken into custody by the Russians and, until this day, his fate remains unknown.

 

Wannsee Conference

A conference attended by high ranking Nazis, such as Heydrich and Eichmann, which took place on January 20, 1942, at a lake near Berlin.  It discussed the "Final Solution" and the means used to annihilate the remaining 11,000,000 European and North African Jews.

 

war crimes

Violations of basic standards for treatment of Prisoners Of War and civilians during war time, which were codified at the Geneva Convention.

 

War Refugee Board

The agency finally established in 1944 after the U.S. Secretary of  Treasury, Henry Morgenthau, and other convinced President Roosevelt of the need.  This agency   negotiated for the rescue and relief of Jewish and other war refugees.

 

Warsaw Ghetto

The predominantly Jewish area of the capital of Poland that was enclosed within walls, in November 1940, confining nearly 500,000 Jews.  Starvation, disease, lack of sanitary conditions, and shootings led to the deaths of 45,000 in 1941 alone.  A few thousand Jews per day were sent to Treblinka.  When General Stroop attempted to liquidate the ghetto in April 1943, the residents revolted and fought with their pitifully inferior weapons against German troops until, finally on May 16, 1943, the last survivors were killed or deported.  The first resident uprising in occupied Europe was led by Mordechai Anielewicz and sanctioned by major Rabbis.

 

Wehrmacht

The regular German army.

 

Weimar Republic

The German state established in 1919, after World War I.  Although economic conditions improved at a slow pace over the following twenty yearssd, Hitler was able to use 1928's inflation and unemployment to bring about a demise of the Republic, which occurred when Hitler became chancellor and President in 1934.

 

weltanschauung

German for "world view" and ideology, i.e. Aryan superiority, or the idea that Jews were the world's enemies.

 

Wiesel, Elie

A world renowned writer whose books emphasize the remembrance of the Holocaust tragedy.   He won the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.

 

Wiesenthal, Simon

A Holocaust survivor whose life goal is dedicated to gathering evidence to prosecute Germans as well as other war criminals.

X

Xenophobia

An unreasonable fear or hatred of foreigners or strangers. The Nazis played on this fear to stir up anti-Semitism.

 

X-Rays

X-rays were used in medical experiments in the women's camp in Birkenau. "Dr." Horst Schumann used X-rays to sterilize his innocent victims, young men and women, who usually died very painful deaths shortly thereafter.

Y

Yellow Star (Jewish Badge)

A Jewish ID badge worn on the arm or chest that Germans demanded Jews of occupied countries to wear at the risk of being shot.  Ultimately, these Jews were discriminated against, maltreated, or worse.

Z

Zyklon-B

A cyanide gas made of prussic acid, produced by a German company, which was used specifically in Auschwitz II (Birkenau).